The Latest On Chez Muzungu

Thanks for your patience, everyone. It has been a week of many ups and downs, setbacks and delays. Sometimes I've felt like Sysiphus, rolling the stone up the hill every morning, to have it roll over me and down the hill at the end of every day. But, I am happy to report, it seems as though things are trending in the right direction. Andrea's work came through with another advance of 3 months' rent in the form of a check for Senora Eugenie yesterday at about midday.

And work has again resumed. There are curtains in the house (though still need alterations before they can be hung). Cinder blocks are being brought into the garage to build a dividing wall to form my bicycle shop / man-cave. Shelves were installed in our office (though need a door and to be painted). All the bedrooms have closet doors (more similar to built-in armoires), though again unfinished. Zoe's playroom has been painted (mint green). We're told that the kitchen cabinets are "casi-casi completas" (almost-almost done), and that only after they are installed will the stove and fridge go in.

So progress is being made at a very slow -but measurable- pace. And Senora does continue to promise that all should be done a week from yesterday. Scheduled day to take possession is Saturday, August 15th. We are officially expecting the household goods shipment with all our furniture the next day, but we are quite skeptical of this as well, because we anticipate issues with Customs clearance.

This has been an issue for getting possession of our car, which has been in a Customs lot in Kigali for just under three weeks now. Every week we've been told on Friday that it will almost certainly be in our hands by the end of the next week. Like a mirage of an oasis, it's always just out of reach. Also for our July 25-lb. DHL care package from my parents (mostly stuff we bought on Amazon) that has been in Kigali since Monday and with no explanation available on how long it may take to receive. So we are learning that we may have a few weeks in our new house with the bare-bones furniture and pots-and-pans that we have either hand-carried or sent in the smaller air shipment. Oh well, c'est la vie. I'll be completely happy to be in an empty house if it's the house we've wanted for so long.